Glue, Paper and Thread

 

Glue, Paper and Thread
(c) Tom Murphy VII, Commons.

New Delhi. 12 July: For a hobbyist Book binder, arranging essential raw materials is a Herculean task. If the books are old then one has to use material that can support book for many upcoming decades, in other words material should be of Archival-Quality.

I believe, a book is composed of not just letters and ideas, but every book is a finished product comprising of Cloth, Paper, Thread and glue (of course book boards). Repairing a book is a task in itself because you want to retain the original shape of the book, and for that matter want to deploy the same materials and methods that were used by the original publisher / printing press.

These all are Glue
(c) Amy M Lavine, Commons

People often ask what kind of glue

available in India is archival in nature. Well I have only used Fevicol MR (PVA) till date, which has good flexibility, has archival properties, provides long term support to the spine of the book. But it has one big drawback, if in case the book needs to be repaired in the future, then PVA (Polyvinyl Acetate) can not be removed from the spine of the book. 

In older times (Five-Six centuries ago), book binders only used Animal Glues (सरेश / Sa-resh in Hindi), and later started to use “Wheat Starch Pastes” (लई / la-ee in Hindi). Both of these are still used and are Archival in nature. They can last for centuries. Animal glue, if possible should be avoided because they have a very obnoxious smell, it’s also unethical to harm animals, it also is not flexible. We normally use Animal glue as a secondary coat on the spine of the book. Primary coat should always be of wheat starch paste. So for the secondary coat we can replace Animal Glue with PVA (Fevicol). So Wheat Starch Paste, Animal Glue, and PVA are all Archival in nature.

Paper Shop in Seoul
(c) Richard Fisher, 
Wikimedia Commons.

AS FAR AS PAPER is considered, For book binding purposes we should stick to paper that is Archival in nature. Paper should be Acid and Lignin free. So we may use “Handmade Cotton Rag Paper”, which is easily available in all markets for our book binding use. Cotton Paper of different weightage (gsm) are easily available in India. In Western Countries, and East Asian Societies, they also use Korean Paper (Kozo Paper, Hanji Paper) as a spine liner, but this kind of paper is not easily available in India. Kozo Paper is made from the bark of Mulberry (शहतूत / Sh-he-toot) tree, Whereas Cotton paper is prepared from the cotton waste coming out of the textile industry. Both Cotton Paper and Korean Kozo Paper are completely archival in nature.

Linen Thread
(c) BERTFR, Commons

IF WE TALK ABOUT BOOKBINDING 

THREAD, then we should use Unbleached Linen Thread, or if an Unbleached cotton thread is available,then we can use that too. Please note to use only an “Unbleached” thread of “Natural Color” (should not contain any Color). We are using Unbleached thread because bleach is acidic in nature, and in the long run it will harm the pages of the book. In western countries, Book Binders use three kinds of threads in general. The “18/3” Unbleached linen thread is thick in nature. The “25/3” unbleached linen thread is of medium thickness. And the “35/3” unbleached linen thread is thin in nature, and is recommended for thicker books. These threads are not easily available in India, so we can use any cotton or linen thread that we think suitable, but please keep in mind to only use Unbleached thread.

In Western World, Book Binders generally use Unbleached Linen Cloth for spine covering (Mull). However when I researched, I realised that Publishing Houses have always used a Muslin Cloth of Open Weave (40 gauge) for their books. Muslin although is weaker than linen. In India 90 gauge Muslin Cloth is very easily available and is cheap too. It is Unbleached and commonly used in the kitchen as “Cheese-cloth”.

Please Download the “Book Conservation Manual” from the following link (Courtesy : Alaska State Library):-

https://library.alaska.gov/documents/hist/convservation-manual.pdf